When I pick up a book, if I'm drawn in by how it looks, then I'll usually read the back or summary and thirdly I'll flip the pages to the first sentence. I'm looking for something particular. Will it be good enough? Will I like this book? What's it all about? Even though I'm ready to decide one way or the other, if I'll spend my time on this book or not, I'm also desperately searching for a really good read. Deep down I want the book to be shocking and wonderful and dazzling. I put quite a bit of pressure on the book, don't I? The first sentence needs to capture my attention immediately. Perhaps it will, with a bit of clever, catchy wording, or something shocking about death or being dead already.
Here are some I liked:
"The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don't got nothing much to say. About anything." The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
"Being dead was colder than Mark expected." The Midnight Charter by David Whitley
"There was once, in the country of Alifbay, a sad city, the saddest of cities, a city so ruinously sad that it had forgotten its name." Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie
All of Diana Wynne Jones books draw me in even though they are rather unremarkable, ordinary statements; yet somehow so perfect you can't help but read the next sentence after the first, and the next and so on until you've slip into the story without even noticing. I won't quote them all, but here's a few:
"There's been an accident! she thought. Something's wrong." --from Time of the Ghost
"In the land of Ingary, where such things as seven-league boots and cloaks of invisibility really exist, it is quite a misfortune to be born the eldest of three." -- from Howl's Moving Castle.
"Cat Chant admired his eldest sister Gwendolen." --from Charmed Life.
"The note said: SOMEONE IN THIS CLASS IS A WITCH." -- from Witch Week.
"Nothing was going right with the Wizards' University." -- from Year of the Griffin.
"Polly sighed and laid her book face down on her bed." -- from Fire and Hemlock.
"The letter was in Earth script, unhandily scrawled in blobbly blue ballpoint." --from Hexwood.
"The train journey was horrible." --from A Tale of Time City.
"The Dog Star stood beneath the Judgement Seats and raged." --from Dogsbody.
Once I got started writing these down I discovered it was hard to stop. I really truly love her books, and the brilliant way they begin. Amazing how short some of her first sentences are. (You know sometimes I enjoy copying out my favorite quotes or scenes just to get the feeling of the words, the syntax and structure. I'm practicing for when I write my own words and sentences.)
While digging through my resources I found some advise about the first sentence, it needs to create movement. There are so many possibilities with that. You can move the reader, planting some suspicion or doubt or question in their mind. Why was the train journey horrible? Who is the witch? What accident? Or you can make the characters in the story move, such as Polly physically putt a book on her bed. Even then a question pops into my head - what book is she reading, and why isn't she going to read it anymore?
So, how does our story begin? Well, if you ignore the envelope, then the first line is from Ange's letter:
"Dear Cousin, I can barely write my hands shake so much."What do you think? It's not bad, I wouldn't call it brilliant though. There's movement, since Ange's physically writing the letter, and her hands are shaking. It raises a question, a concern: why is Ange upset? Why is she writing to her cousin? Questions which are soon answered in the next few lines, but by that point more questions are raised and the story begins moving along. What do you think Terrwyn? Do you have other favorite beginnings?
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